An important application of this invention is its use in the collection of cashmere. Cashmere is the fine diameter, non-medullated, wool-like fibres, varying in length from 2.5 to 9 cms which occur in the undercoat of goats.
The process of harvesting cashmere comprises collection of the cashmere fibres at a time when the goat is shedding them, so that the process is more one of separating the fine shedding hair from coarser hair in the goat's coat using a combing process, rather than one of cutting the fibres, or pulling them out from the follicles.
All the world's production of cashmere is currently hand-combed, and this manual process takes about 30 minutes per goat. Since goat-hair is usually matted and tangled, this manual procedure is very time-consuming, tedious and physically demanding, and results in a relatively expensive product.
This invention may also be used to facilitate the removal of wool from sheep which have been treated especially to enable such removal. Prior art sheep shearing techniques are labour intensive and it is desirable to reduce the labour cost of sheep shearing.
For the purposes of this specification "hair" is to be taken to mean any slender threadlike outgrowth of the epidermis of an animal and includes fur, fleece etc.
The present invention therefore seeks to provide an improved method of and apparatus for removal of hair from animals.